Day 101: Carcassonne, France

Day 101 and we are back on the road again. We got up briefly at 5:15am today to say goodbye to the gang as they all left to catch their flights to various destinations (mainly NYC, except for Nadja who is heading to Budapest). We then went back to sleep to wake up at 8am to hit the road by 9am for our drive to Carcassonne, France. While looking at a map yesterday Mr Mair mentioned a town that he recognized along our route that might be a good place to stop and see (Cahors). So while we were driving and saw the name of the town on an exit sign, we decided to pull off the highway to stretch our legs and add another town to our list of places we've been to.

Not having done any research on this town we parked as close to the center as we could and just walked. We discovered that the town is bordered by water on three sides by the Lot River. It has an historic quarter with buildings from the Middle Ages and a 14th century fortified bridge (Valentre).

One of the first things we noticed when driving into town was that on nearly every piece of grass there were grapes vines planted. Even in traffic circles there was small vineyards. That's how you know that it's going to be a good town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahors


(Cathedral of Saint Etienne. There happened to be a festival going on today as you can see behind Ilana.)


(The back of the cathedral.)


(The house of Henry IV. Henry IV is said to have lived here during the siege of Cahors in 1580.)


(Ilana in front of the Pont Valentre.)

We grabbed a couple of sandwiches and got back on the road toward Carcassonne. By 3pm we were behind the walled city of Carcassonne with a map in hand and ready to see the sights. Carcassonne has signs of being first settled back in 3500 BC but became strategically significant around 100 BC during the Roman occupation when they built a fortified structure on the hilltop of the area. It traded hands many times throughout history, most notably being reinforced and expanded when Carcassonne was along the French-Spanish border. After a treaty in the 1600's the border was pushed further south and Carcassonne's importance became greatly reduced, eventually being abandoned. In the 1800's efforts where made to renovate the old structures and has been a tourist destination ever since.


(View across the top of the town from one of the towers.)


(Ilana peeking out from the crenelated walls of the town.)


(During our walk along the ramparts. Almost looks like Disneyworld in the background.)


(Can you find Ilana in this photo?)


(The Basilique des Saint-Nazaire)


(Outside the city walls.)


(Another shot as the sun starts to set.)

This wikipedia link has a great picture of what the city looks like from far away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carcassonne-vignes.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

We are staying at a hotel inside the historic city walls, so we had a casual dinner at a nearby restaurant and toasted the last dinner that we'll have in France on this trip.

FJ